Pitts wrote:Bhaw, the only opinion I can add here is that this particular game is a very special event. It isn't a normal Buffalo home game, even though is "technically" is. IMO, Buffalo and Penguins fans should have had a pre-sale dedicated solely to them. After that sale went off, and it could have been the next day, they open it to the general audience. One could argue that the NHL thought it might not sell out, but how would it have been any different with the botched system they had in place? With Buffalo being so close to Canada, everyone knew those tickets would go like hot-cakes. Maybe not 30 minute hot-cakes, but still, we knew they'd sell. It's not about Toronto fans, or Blue Jays fans or Bills fans. This is a very special event that many, many people just want to be a part of. To toss 1500 seats to Pittsburgh is pretty much a slap in the face. Sidney Crosby is selling this game, not Thomas Vanek.

I agree that it would have been nice if they gave Pittsburgh more tickets, but the Sabers and the NHL are running a business. Their goal is to sell the tickets. Again, also remember that this is the FIRST TIME EVER the NHL has put on an outdoor event in the United States. They had no idea what the best way to distribute tickets would be.

Bottom line is that there WILL BE 71,000 people at this game and it will be avialable on national TV. Seriously, what more do you want out of the NHL at this point for this game? Sorry they hurt your feelings in an attempt to make progress for the sport that EVERYONE here complains about being put down by ESPN and football and baseball fans. You can't have it all. I'm sure this tradition will continue, being it is looking to be successful, and the ticket distribution method will be refined.

Btw... the argument about Crosby selling the game out... that goes for almost any away game this year. When they go to play the Lightning or the Panthers, are those clubs expected to hold back tickets for Penguin fans to make sure they get a "fair shot" at tickets for that game? Crosby is selling out those arenas, so as a Pittsburgh fan, am I more deserving than a casual Florida fan?

The Super Bowl is a "special event." They don't hold back presale tickets for the teams that make it, right? And that is one of the most popular and successful sporting events in the world. Put yourself in the NHL's shoes. You would be dancing a jig right now knowing that you just sold this game out.

The whining about holding seats for Leafs and Jays ticket holders is ridiculous. It's less than 0.5% of the entire amount of tickets that will be available. That's not the problem. The problem is that Ticketmaster allowed people to buy huge quantities of tickets at once. Scalpers have a lot of credit for selling it out so quickly.

Of course Buffalo is going to get exclusive rights to tickets. They agreed to host the event, unlike the Penguins. If this thing were going to be in Pittsburgh, there's no doubt there would be many furious Pens fans who got shutout who would be angry that the league held any tickets for the Sabres. They are trying to market this as more than just a Pens/Sabres game. If they held enough tickets to appease Pens and Sabres fans, there would be nothing left for anyone else. That's not the point. They're trying to attract people from all the local regions and really the country as a whole. Obviously, they're not going to be able to please everyone.

But again, it's the scalpers that are the problem. They're the ones that gobbled up tickets so that they could sell them at a premium. That has everything to do with the way Ticketmaster distributed the tickets. Blame them. Blame the scalpers. They're the ones that stole your tickets, not people who leaked a password that only allowed access for 1,500 tickets, not Leafs and Jays ticket holds who were able to access a few hundred tickets.

bhaw wrote: agree that it would have been nice if they gave Pittsburgh more tickets, but the Sabers and the NHL are running a business. Their goal is to sell the tickets. Again, also remember that this is the FIRST TIME EVER the NHL has put on an outdoor event in the United States. They had no idea what the best way to distribute tickets would be.

Well, 5 minutes into the States - Buffalo is practically in Canada.

bhaw wrote:Sorry they hurt your feelings in an attempt to make progress for the sport that EVERYONE here complains about being put down by ESPN and football and baseball fans.

Please understand, my feeling are not hurt. I didn't even attempt to buy tickets...yet. I was only trying to offer a reasonable solution.

bhaw wrote:Btw... the argument about Crosby selling the game out... that goes for almost any away game this year. When they go to play the Lightning or the Panthers, are those clubs expected to hold back tickets for Penguin fans to make sure they get a "fair shot" at tickets for that game? Crosby is selling out those arenas, so as a Pittsburgh fan, am I more deserving than a casual Florida fan?

Like I said, this a very, very special event. This not just an NHL home game. This was going to sell anyway, but you can not deny that seeing Crosby in an open air arena is not a huge draw.

bhaw wrote:The Super Bowl is a "special event." They don't hold back presale tickets for the teams that make it, right? And that is one of the most popular and successful sporting events in the world. Put yourself in the NHL's shoes. You would be dancing a jig right now knowing that you just sold this game out.

The Super Bowl is also how old now? How many "Ice Bowls" have there been yet? Besides, the Superbowl sells pretty much 50/50 to the fans of the teams. Sure, there are several thousand that are neutral fans, but most of the tickets are sold to fans of the teams in the game. I know it isn't alloted that way, but with the age of that venue, neutral fans usually won't shell out the dough just to go to the Superbowl. For the first "Ice Bowl", everyone wants to be there. And it happened to be in a very convenient US location to the NHL's most rabid fan base.

I actually think the NHL is suprised at how fast this sold. And they should be jigging at how well it did.

...not sure what all the fuss is about...i logged on at 10am, selected my price range, 6 seats and hit continue...and about 2 minutes later i got my seats...it's not that hard...and to be honest, if u get to see 41 penguins games per year in person, i really can't shed a tear for u if u can't see the icebowl game...get a grip...

(Speedyguns... not directing everything in here at you... it's to everyone complaining in general)

Hindsight is 20/20. It's easy to come up with the solution now that we know how desireable the tickets are.

ALso of note... your distribution method automatically cuts out a good portion of Buffalo season ticket holders. They already PAID for that game and have tickets in hand for the game vs Pittsburgh. So your "FAIR" method of distributing tickets rips tickets out of the hands of people who already own the rights to see this game. And I could almost GAURANTEE you that a Buffalo fan that lost his ticket to the Ice Bowl in order to be "fair" to the Pittsburgh fans who deserve tickets would be on the other side saying that this game isn't THAT "special."

Again, this is a business. The game is/will be sold out. Owners and NHL are happy. And that fact that anyone can moan and complain that you are going to see a jam packed Ralf Wilson stadium on New Years Eve for a hockey game featuring the Penguins should be enough to make you all happy. Please step outside of yourself for a couple seconds to recognize how far our team has come so you can bring a little happiness into your life. It might keep some of you from jumping off a bridge because you couldn't get a ticket to this game... Oh, and the good news is that you will STILL be able to buy a ticket from one of these scalpers that purchased all 40,000 tickets at once.

My only problem is that the email that went out to the Pens STHs was worded poorly. It stated that they had tickets reserved for us and that we had until the 28th to make up our minds, and if we didn't purchase by then, the tickets would be released.

Personally it doesn't matter to me either way, because I didn't try to buy tickets. I would have loved to have gone, but I had some scheduling conflicts that prohibited me from making the trip. I can see why people would be ticked off, though - the email to the STHs basically said that we had ten days to make up our minds, so people probably weren't all jumping right online at 10AM to buy tickets. I know this kind of thing is unprecedented in terms of ticket sales, but it could have been handled better. Regardless of whether Pens STHs are "owed" tickets or not, it was implied that they'd be made available to us.

Spikey wrote:My only problem is that the email that went out to the Pens STHs was worded poorly. It stated that they had tickets reserved for us and that we had until the 28th to make up our minds, and if we didn't purchase by then, the tickets would be released.

Personally it doesn't matter to me either way, because I didn't try to buy tickets. I would have loved to have gone, but I had some scheduling conflicts that prohibited me from making the trip. I can see why people would be ticked off, though - the email to the STHs basically said that we had ten days to make up our minds, so people probably weren't all jumping right online at 10AM to buy tickets. I know this kind of thing is unprecedented in terms of ticket sales, but it could have been handled better. Regardless of whether Pens STHs are "owed" tickets or not, it was implied that they'd be made available to us.

no..it doesnt really say they'll absolutely be held until the 28th and you can wait until then

As a Pittsburgh Penguins Season Ticket Holder, we have reserved seats for you. Starting at 10 AM Tuesday, September 18th, 2007, you will be able to click on a link to access tickets for this event. Please note that these seats will only be held until September 28th, based on availability.

Spikey wrote:My only problem is that the email that went out to the Pens STHs was worded poorly. It stated that they had tickets reserved for us and that we had until the 28th to make up our minds, and if we didn't purchase by then, the tickets would be released.

Personally it doesn't matter to me either way, because I didn't try to buy tickets. I would have loved to have gone, but I had some scheduling conflicts that prohibited me from making the trip. I can see why people would be ticked off, though - the email to the STHs basically said that we had ten days to make up our minds, so people probably weren't all jumping right online at 10AM to buy tickets. I know this kind of thing is unprecedented in terms of ticket sales, but it could have been handled better. Regardless of whether Pens STHs are "owed" tickets or not, it was implied that they'd be made available to us.

no..it doesnt really say they'll absolutely be held until the 28th and you can wait until then

As a Pittsburgh Penguins Season Ticket Holder, we have reserved seats for you. Starting at 10 AM Tuesday, September 18th, 2007, you will be able to click on a link to access tickets for this event. Please note that these seats will only be held until September 28th, based on availability.

And it also says that they have reserved seats for us. So to me, that implies that they have, you know, reserved seats for us.

If it was going to be handled this way they should have said something like, "we have a limited number of tickets available for STHs, here's the password, don't wait because they're first come, first served and nothing is reserved."

Again, I don't really care because I wasn't going anyway, but I can't believe how nasty this thread has gotten over such a minor vent. No wonder I rarely post here anymore.

King Sid the Great 87 wrote:This is worse than lesky crying about scalping during the playoffs.

From Rob Rossi's Q&A this week, we find out the real name of this thread starter...

Q: As a Penguins season-ticket holder I, like many others, was disappointed with the ticket situation for the NHL Winter Classic. If I knew the Penguins were only getting 1,500 tickets and no control on people buying 50 at a time, I would not have spent my morning on Ticketmaster.com.

this was organized terribly. i didnt have the opportunity to go online the other day and order tickets, but i, like many others assumed that it wouldnt sell out in 6 minutes either. if they want something like this to work. they cant just up and decide to have the event. they got to advertise it for awhile. and set a fair amount of tickets available for ALL fans.

socket wrote:run by retards...or simply complained about by people who didn't get them. I had absolutely NO trouble getting 8 seats and didnt use the password.

But just because you had no trouble doesn't mean others didn't.

Complaining won't fix it. People are blaming the system because they werent able to get tickets after it sold out. That's how life works. If you couldnt be somewhere to try at 10:00 that's nobody's fault but yours.

Oh im sorry i have a real job that i have to be at. My responsibilities at work come before buying tickets for if i dont make money i cant spend money. You should at least thank me for paying my taxes next time you get your welfare check cuz you must not have a job if your online at 10:00 a.m.............

Socket has a job he is quite successful actually, his office internet connection is just faster than yours.

I also have a job, but I'll thank you for paying your taxes if that makes you happy.

If it makes you all feel any better all of your local taxes pay my salary. I couldn't get tickets at 10:00am but luckily socket got me one!